


Meeting

by wil2scully



Series: Replacements and Possibilities [1]
Category: Animal Kingdom (TV), Black Dagger Brotherhood - J. R. Ward
Genre: Angst, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:00:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22485982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wil2scully/pseuds/wil2scully
Summary: A little crossover between Animal Kingdom and the Black Dagger Brotherhood.  Adrian and Deran's relationship reminded me of Qhuinn and Blay's, and I thought the latter could help the former with their little "problem".  Maybe give A&D their HEA?
Relationships: Blaylock/Qhuinn, Deran Cody/Adrian Dolan
Series: Replacements and Possibilities [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1617835
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This fic crosses not only a TV show and a book series, but spans genres. Black Dagger Brotherhood is a paranormal series by JR Ward, set in Caldwell, NY, and dealing with vampires. Vamps in this series have special abilities that I thought would help Deran and Adrian immensely.

J had found someone. A woman willing to become the Cody’s fence. Problem was, she was just a conduit. The head of the operation was demanding an audience with a Cody brother before the final agreement would take place. The boss’s main operations were across the country in Caldwell, NY, so it would require a few days.  
  
Craig was busy with Renn and the baby. Renn was going through some sort of depression and Craig didn’t want to leave her. Pope was dealing with all the people coming out of the woodwork demanding things from the brothers after Smurf’s death, and leaving for a few days wasn’t an option. J had school finals, plus he was working all the books and putting out feelers for replacements for other “associates”, since those that had worked for Smurf didn’t yet trust her boys. Maybe never would.  
  
That left Deran. Yeah, he had the bar, but his brothers could fill in there. And honestly, he was so bereft after Adrian left for Indonesia, he didn’t fucking care. Whatever. He’d go.  
  
Deran got into LaGuardia around 8pm. He rented a car and drove the three hours up to Caldwell. After checking in to his hotel, he located the bar where he’d been told to meet Trez Latimer. sHaDoWs was a hoppin place. He mentioned to the bouncer he was there to see Trez, as he’d been told to do. They immediately let him past all the people in line and told him to head to the VIP area and get himself a drink at the bar. Trez would be with him shortly.  
  
The first thing he noticed was the beautiful redheaded dude sitting at the bar. The guy was huge, but he had a friendly face, so Deran sat down next to him. He didn’t really remind Deran of Adrian. Adrian was muscular, but this guy was huge and cut. He looked like a Marine. The red hair and bright blue eyes did make his heart break a little though.  
  
The guy turned toward him. “Busy night, hey?”, Redhead said. Deran just nodded. Redhead continued to yammer at him. “What are you drinking? Everything here in the VIP section is top shelf. You should try the Herradura. Smooth as hell, that tequila! But get the expensive stuff…it’s worth it. All my mate drinks. By the way, I’m Blaylock, but everyone calls me Blay”.  
  
“I’m Deran. Nice to meet you”. He reached over and offered his hand, which Blay shook with a hard grip. Deran wasn’t sure he felt like talking, but Blaylock with the weird name who spoke kind of funny (mate?) was nice enough. He ordered the Herradura, and the guy was right. It was amazing. After a few more shots, he decided he could talk to Blay. And for some reason, talking basically meant blathering about Adrian.  
  
“I’m here to meet the guy that owns this place. He wanted a face-to-face with one of my family for a business deal, and I drew the short straw. But really, I don’t care. The love of my life had to leave the country and I don’t really give a shit what I have to do. I just want to get back to work so I don’t have to think about it.”  
  
Blay gave him a sad look. “Is she coming back?” Deran looked at him, confused. Then he realized Blay was referring to the aforementioned love of Deran’s life. “Oh, it’s a he. And no, he’s not. He can’t. He got himself into some legal trouble and the cops screwed him. He refused to be a snitch and was gonna get major time. Adrian’s not soft, but he’s too naïve, and gay men in prison don’t fare well. I couldn’t let that happen.”  
  
“What’d he do?” Blay asked. “He was smuggling cocaine in his surfboard.” Deran explained. “It was a one-time deal that went bad. Adrian isn’t a drug smuggler. He just had too much pride to ask me for money. Got caught at the airport on his way to South Africa for a surfing comp.”  
  
“That sucks man”, Blay said. “I’m sorry. That’s gotta be hard. Do you think he could ever come back, or you go to wherever he is?” Deran shook his head. “I was originally going to go with him, and never come back, but I couldn’t leave my family. I should probably just let him go and not visit him. It would only prolong our suffering. I guess we both just need to move on. Our timing has always sucked.”, Deran kind of mumbled. Fuck. He could feel his eyes getting wet, and his vision started swimming. About that time, the head of security came up to the bar. “Yo, Blay.”, Xhex said. “Do me a favor and escort your new bud up to Trez’s. He’s ready to talk to him”.  
  
“Follow me”, Blay said. “I’ll take you up to his office”. Deran followed Blay out of the VIP section through the main area and up a semi-hidden staircase. When they opened the office and stepped inside, two more huge dudes were there. The guy leaning against the edge of the desk looked like a professional athlete. He seemed very confident, like he knew he was the one in charge. The one in the corner had a teardrop tattoo under his left eye, beautiful black spiked hair, piercings all over his face and a scowl that looked like a death ray. Both men were hot as fuck, like Blay. The latter made the introductions.  
  
“Deran”, Blay said, pointing to the guy leaning against the desk. This is Trez Latimer. He owns sHaDoWs. And that grumpy-looking asshole in the corner is my mate, Qhuinn. He’s here as backup security tonight.” Deran looked at the guy giving him that glare in the corner. “Wow, check it!”, Deran thought. He had two different colored eyes. One green, one blue. He practically dripped sex and would have been hotter if he’d had a smile on his face. Oh well. Guess Blay and Qhuinn were gay, too. At least they had that in common.  
  
“So”, Trez interjected. “You and your brothers want to set up a connection?” Deran scoped out Blay and Qhuinn with a skeptical look. Trez continued. “It’s fine. They’re with me. What is said here stays here. They’ll keep their pie-holes shut. But they’re not leaving”.  
  
Deran gave everyone another once-over and realized Blay must have known what Deran was here for. In fact, he had probably been told to meet Deran at the bar. “Cool. Whatever. Let’s get down to business so I can get the fuck out of here.”, he thought.  
  
“Yes.”, Deran said. “We’re looking for a new ‘connection’ to help move what we acquire. Our mother had her own people, but she recently got out of the business and her connections are a little apprehensive to change who they do business with. My brothers and I are looking for replacements. People we can trust with discretion.”  
  
“I know Smurf is dead, Deran.”, said Trez, freaking Deran the fuck out. “And I know Gia doesn’t want to inherit the Cody brothers. She doesn’t trust you. I, however, don’t give a fuck. We would be able to move whatever you need. Art, jewelry, cars, whatever. We have ways of avoiding the police. We’re actually a much better option for you and your brothers than Gia. But it won’t be cheap, and it won’t be as easy as working with Gia. You’ll have to get your inventory to our contact in Oceanside. Your nephew J knows who that is. From there, she will ship it to wherever we tell her to. The payout is 60-40. You and your brothers will get the 40. Deal?”  
  
“How about 55-45?” Deran countered. “We’re doing all the heavy lifting, and if you have some rock-solid way of avoiding the authorities, you don’t have as much at stake.” Trez just laughed. “I like you, Deran Cody. You have very few options, and you know it. Smurf had a lot of enemies. You’ll never find anyone else but me. But I’ll give you what you want, because I don’t really need the money. I do this shit for fun. If it’s a deal, I’ll have Blay and Qhuinn show you out. But get another drink at the bar with them. You’ll want to get to know these two. They’re your contacts with me.”  
  
“Fair enough” Deran said. He held out his hand, and Trez shook it. “Nice doing business with you Mr. Latimer. May we all get what we want, and nothing that we deserve.” Trez laughed. “Amen to that, Mr. Cody. Amen to that. I’ll be in touch.” At that, Deran left the office, Qhuinn and Blay following right behind him.  
  
Back at the bar, Qhuinn ordered all three of them shots of Herradura. When their drinks arrived, Blay spoke up. “Deran, tell Qhuinn about the situation with Adrian. He and I might be able to help.” Deran looked at Blay with a scowl. “How would YOU be able to help?”, Deran asked. “Just explain the situation to Qhuinn. Please.”, said Blay.  
  
Deran looked at Qhuinn, who had his eyebrows raised. “I had to send my boyfriend to Indonesia to keep him out of prison”, Deran explained. He continued with the story, but as these two knew what Deran and his brothers were into, he added to what he’d originally told Blay. “There’s this asshole detective named Pierce that’s been trying to nail my mom for years. Adrian was offered immunity for turning in his suppliers, but when the fuckstick working the case found out I was Adrian’s boyfriend, he told this Pierce guy. They took the immunity offer off the table once they found out.  
  
They wanted Adrian to give them information about us. And Adrian knew a lot. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and he’d seen enough. He and I have gone back and forth with our relationship for years, but Adrian would never turn on me. We’ve been friends forever, and I love him. I know he feels the same way, even though the last thing he said to me was I was the worst thing that ever happened to him. He was going to take the jail time, but Smurf found out he’d been talking to the cops. She wanted me to kill him. I couldn’t do it, but I knew if he went to prison he’d eventually talk. He’s not equipped to deal with the shit they’d do to him in lockup. He would have ended up dead, and I couldn’t bear that. Not having him with me is torture but finding out he’d died in prison would have killed me.” Deran finished.  
  
Qhuinn spoke up first. “Your story sounds a lot like mine and Blay’s. We’ve known each since we were kids too. Blay is my rock. I can’t imagine life without him.” Blay blushed and looked down, shy. “I can’t imagine life without Qhuinn, either.” Blay said. “I’d probably want to die if he couldn’t be with me for whatever reason, but to be kept apart so he wouldn’t be killed would be untenable”, he finished. Deran just felt miserable.  
  
“We might be able to help, but we’d have to clear it with our boss” Qhuinn said. “We’d have to meet up with this detective and that other cop you were talking about, which means we’d have to come to Oceanside. It’s not easy for us to get away from Caldwell, so this might take a while. Think you can somehow arrange a meetup with those cops?” Qhuinn finished.  
  
“Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but what is it you think you can do?”, Deran countered. “Killing cops that have a direct connection to my family isn’t going to help me OR Adrian”. He knew he sounded kind of whiney, but he didn’t think killing the asshole cops would be the greatest plan.  
  
“We don’t have to kill them.”, Qhuinn said. “We have other ways of dealing with the police. But we need a face-to-face with them. And we need it to be after dark”, he finished.  
“Really? And what might that be?” Deran quipped. Qhuinn and Blay just stared at him. Deran got a little squirmy. Finally, Qhuinn said “we can’t really give out our methods. Trade secret.” Qhuinn kind of smirked.  
  
“Ok. Yeah, I can probably figure something out so you can talk to them.” Deran finally said. Qhuinn looked at him with that scowl on his puss. “We don’t need to talk to them. We just need to get up close.”, he said. “That I can definitely do”, Deran said. “I can lure them to the beach with some crap information about something going on with me and my brothers. Will that work?”  
  
“Yes”, said Qhuinn. “If we’re cleared to help you out, we’ll talk to our brother Vishous. He’s a computer genius. He’ll be able to get rid of any evidence against Adrian in the police files. Once the cops meet with us, Adrian’s problem will be a thing of the past.”  
  
“You have a brother named Vishous? What kind of name is that? And why would you help us?”, Deran asked. “You don’t even know us.”, he finished. Qhuinn looked at him with those mismatched eyes. “Yes, Vishous lives up to his name. If you met him, you’d get it. He makes me look like a sweetheart. Which I’m not. And we’d help you because we understand real love. That shit doesn’t happen to everyone. Just about didn’t happen for us. We went through a lot, and almost lost each other, but finally pulled our heads out of our asses and admitted how we felt about each other. It sounds like you and Adrian have gone down a similar road.”, Q finished. Blay nodded in agreement. It was obvious Qhuinn was the more assertive in their relationship. Deran could relate. Adrian was no pushover, but Deran had difficulty relinquishing control. Looked like he and Qhuinn had similar personalities. Geez, did he scowl like that, too?  
  
“Well, I’m at my wits end with this situation. I’m willing to take a gamble on anything to get Adrian back. God, I miss him.”, Deran said, sadly thinking of what Adrian might currently be doing, alone, in Indonesia. Was he with someone else? He tried not to dwell on those thoughts.  
  
“Once we get clearance to help, can be in Oceanside in a few days”, said Qhuinn. “Is there anywhere you could find for us to stay that has a basement?”. “Sure”, said Deran. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find a place. Basements aren’t common in California, but I’m sure someone has one.”, he finished. Deran was starting to think this situation was a little weird. Meetings at night? Needing a basement to stay in? Who were these people? If they were able to help him get Adrian back though? He wouldn’t ask any questions.


End file.
